I’ve been exposed to many boring classes in my life (all at the undergrad level—I was blessed to not have any boring grad classes, which is probably why I enjoyed grad school about a zillion times more). And since I’ve been teaching, boredom is something I have come to fear: I worry that I’ll get bored with this whole gig; I worry that my students will be bored by my classes; I worry that my colleagues will describe me as a bore. All of this worry led me to today’s article:
Baker, Tracey. “Boredom in the First-Year Composition Classroom.” TETYC 30.4 (2003): 404-15. Print.
Baker explores the concept of boredom from the eyes of her FYW students. She identifies three issues with determining boredom:
1. First-year students don’t have a fair comparison—they haven’t taken enough college classes to get a clear sense of what to even expect (405). (And on the occasion that I look across my classroom and see someone with glazed-over eyes, I find myself thinking “Oh, yeah? You think this is boring? Just wait, buddy, just wait…”)
2. Different students are bored for different reasons (405). If I lit myself on fire while juggling chainsaws, someone would no doubt yawn (especially since YouTube has come about). This makes it quite difficult for teachers to address the boredom issue—making changes will suite some students but not others. Pesky kids.
3. The word “boredom” doesn’t mean the same thing to all people, and in fact, what students often describe as boredom might actually be confusion, intimidation, or the feeling of being lost (406-07).
The issue of boredom definitely comes down to expectations: ours (teachers’) and theirs (students’). Baker recognizes that for teachers this becomes an identity issue—if we identify ourselves as teachers (and we do…), and if our students identify us as boring, does that make us boring people? I’d like to think that I’m not a boring teacher or person, but I’ve definitely seen some boring teachers out there, but I wouldn’t go so far to say that they must be boring people (perhaps they do more than a wine and cheese tasting for an adventure?). I think the tricky thing here is the fact that we do tie our identities to our professional lives, so how our students view us affects how we view ourselves (or at least it does for me—I don’t want to generalize here). For me this is a positive thing—I am my very best self in the classroom, and students respond well to that. When I get home, though, I’m honestly kind of a dud, but I can rely on my “awesome teacher” identity to carry me through. That can’t possibly be healthy. Back to expectations…I expect my students to not be bored. I work hard to create an engaging class, and the least they can do is reciprocate, right?
Student expectations are equally as tricky. Baker notes that students are basically looking for a performance, and they use our teacher evals as a place to rank our performances (407-08). That’s a tricky issue, too—on one hand, I recognize that sometimes I am putting on a bit of a show (it is my best self after all), but because I’m working with first-year students, I tell myself that I will do what it takes to get their assess in the class. If they don’t like me, they’re less likely to come; if they’re less likely to come, their A LOT less likely to learn something. So, I assure myself that it’s for a good cause. And, it is fun after all. On the other hand, though, my job is not to entertain them. I’ve had some entertaining teachers that I didn’t learn a damn thing from. It was a good time, don’t get me wrong, but that’s not what I needed.
To get at a better understanding of boredom, Baker surveyed her students. One of her interesting findings was that “students do appear to react more to the person in front of the class than to the class, course materials, and other students” (411). I suppose I knew that all along—and banked on it with my own students. I absolutely use my personality to carry me through my classes, and students are very forgiving of me because of it. I may challenge them fiercely, but as long as I do it with a smile and a smart-ass joke, they stick with me.
Baker also asked her students how comp classes could be more interesting. Here’s what they had to say:
“Let us write about topics that interest us.”
“Instructors should stop talking so much.”
“Instructors should show that they love what they’re doing.” (412)
She notes that of the suggestions she received, most of them were directed at the teacher—not the class subject or materials. Because of this, Baker suggests that we talk to our students about how they shouldn’t focus on their instructors but rather on the content of their courses. I think what she is getting at, really, is about helping students develop intrinsic motivation—they shouldn’t need a dog and pony show to get them to want to come to class. I suppose that’s true, but I’ll probably stick with my routine because my goal is to get them to come—they already have so many factors that are pulling them away from the class, but I hope to be one more cog that helps them get to the place in their lives where they’re ready to be intrinsically motivated.
Well, I suppose that should be it for now—I don’t want to bore you. J In the meantime, I’ll leave you with another set of lyrics, Harvey Danger’s “Flagpole Sitta” (if you don’t know it, you should look it up!):
If you’re bored then you’re boring…
Maybe that would be an appropriate response to a student’s claim of boredom?
More tomorrow!
mk
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